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The Eastern State Hospital Cemetery #2 index lists individuals interred at this cemetery in Spokane County, Washington. Death dates listed range from 1942-1953. Index information about an individual may include name, birth date, death date, and names of family members. Index data was compiled by Maggie Rail, a member of the Washington State Cemetery Association who has transcribed over 400 cemeteries since 1993.

From I-90 take the first Medical Lake exit as you are driving south from Spokane. Continue on Hwy 902 for several miles, passing turns into Medical Lake town, until you see the sign which tells you to turn left to Eastern State Hospital. Continue on this road until you see Howard Street on your left. Make a right turn into the State grounds. There will be no road sign, but it is Fourth Street I think.

“This cemetery is on the Eastern Washington State Hospital Grounds, and permission to visit must be received at the main office as you come in. Volunteer Services will direct you if you cannot find it.

In the early days, burial records were not well kept. No plan was laid out to bury, or perhaps it was because different people handled the burials. They did not follow a well laid our plat map. Years of burials are scattered also into more than one area. I am only hoping I am correct in those middle dates. There are some in Cemetery #2 also who are buried earlier than 1942. The sure way to know is have the office look up the records and they will show you the burial spot, if you are a blood relative.

The burials in all of the cemeteries on Eastern State grounds are marked with a small cement marker with a number on them. No particular order of burial it seems in many cases, but they are all numbered well. Over the years these small markers became buried underground. This made it so that many no longer knew where the cemeteries were. Just a weed patch, hiding both headstones and cemeteries, after they discontinued using them for burials.

In the last years the Volunteer Services Department has worked at organizing volunteer groups to help with the project they had in mind, to restore the cemeteries. First it was the cleanup, then the lifting of each of the markers to ground level. Then a plan to see that the area is mowed regularly by the groundskeepers.

This second cemetery was completed and rededicated on Jun 13, 2003, except for the sign. They chose to use the dates 1942-1953 on the sign, however this does not really mean that all burials in this cemetery are within this date frame. It was just a guideline to go by, because only the records office knows the real dates, and I think the dates overlap into both cemeteries. The important part was to get them cleaned out, and this was named #2 because it was the second one they cleaned up and rededicated.

I noticed a section of this one that had a headstone earlier than 1942 in it. This area looks like it is possibly the place where they started the first burials, and it is set apart from the area near it down the hill, but no one knows. It was decided to make it all one cemetery with two sections.

If there is an asterisk, I have the photo of that stone, and found it in this cemetery. The other records were found in my research as I continued to read more cemeteries, or from a family member. I received no records from the staff at Eastern State Hospital. This also may mean there are errors in my work, so do not take it for absolute fact, without further research on your part. Any listed below, which have no asterisk, could be in Cemetery #1.